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Max Payne 3 sells 440K in debut month, called 'a flop'

Although Max Payne 3 managed to secure the number two spot in last month's NPD numbers, actual sales figures suggest Rockstar's latest has seriously underperformed, with millions of unsold copies sitting on store shelves.

While that number may seem impressive to some, it is a far cry from the first-month sales of Rockstar's big 2011 game, LA Noire. That game sold nearly 900K units, but even that game fell short of industry expectations. With Max Payne selling even fewer copies, it's unsurprising that Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter would call the game "a flop."

Pachter points out the game's eight-year development, and claims "Rockstar put off releasing GTA" to work on MP3. Rockstar has admitted that the long-troubled development of Max Payne 3 eventually required the work of many of its global studios.

It's clear that Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Rockstar, was betting big on Max Payne 3's success. In its last financial report, Take-Two claims retail sell-in of about 3 million units. With only 440K units sold in the US, that means there are a few million units of unsold inventory sitting on store shelves. If you haven't bought Max Payne 3 yet (and by the looks of these numbers, you likely haven't), retail markdowns are likely to happen in the coming weeks.